Learning how those with disabilities live

Thursday

She was the average 20-year-old, but getting in a car with a drunk driver changed Betty Eileen Masters' life.

On Tuesday, March 17, Masters talked with 21 Hiland Middle and High school students as part of the group's tour of the Holmes County Training Center.

Masters is wheelchair bound. Her speech and hearing have been affected and she is physically limited from the injuries she sustained in the accident.

Masters spoke to students through a talker, a typing device that allows her to communicate her thoughts, feelings and needs.

Today, she spends her time reading and goes to the Training Center to "tease and hassle the staff." She also is a Masters at Text Twist, a word game for the computer.

Kathleen Winkler, habilitation manager, said she hopes by listening to Masters's story students gain an appreciation of "the things we take for granted."

After spending time with Masters on the Hab Floor, the students toured the workshop where production manager, Sherry Cerreta, gave them the experience of trying to complete piecework with a disability.

Cerreta put blurry glasses on the students to give them the experience of having cataracts or a visual impairment. The students had to place caps on plastic bottles while wearing a hair net, gloves and the glasses. Other students had to use their non-writing hand to piece together eye droppers one-handed.

Afterward, half the students joined Tri-County Preschool students to learn dances and play games. The other half spent time with the vocation I and II classrooms baking bread. The vocation classrooms prepare students to go to work or help at home.

The student tour is part of the center's celebration of March as Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities awareness month. Aaron Rossetti, Hiland Middle School Student Council adviser, said the center contacts the school each year to arrange a tour.

"They want our kids to see this, which is great," Rossetti said.

Hiland High School Student Council adviser Jessica Schwartz agreed.

"I hope they gain an appreciation for different people," Schwartz said.

For Hiland seventh-grade student Logan Miller the tour was a chance to see how people with disabilities live.

"It's nice to see all these people and how they have jobs and they have just as much fun as us," he said.

Hiland freshman Hannah Stoneman said the experience was eye opening.

"It really makes you think how lucky you are," she said.

Reporter Katy Ganz can be reached at 330-674-1811 or e-mail kganz@the-daily-record.com.

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